A long time ago I wrote an article related to PTSD signs and symptoms everyone should be aware of.
Here, we will together take a look at all ”the clothes” PTSD can wear, so it won’t stay unnoticed and unrecognized.
We, bereaved parents, know very well how trauma changes us, but for a lot of those parents PTSD is the one that messes up their entire grieving process.
People should be aware that PTSD can look like this, too:
- Waiting for a new danger. You’ll find yourself constantly waiting for a new tragedy to happen. Your body remembers the trauma, so it keeps getting frozen in a fight or flight mode for so long.
- Going numb when feeling overwhelmed. When life becomes too much, you completely turn off your emotions, not conciously, but by your new nature caused by PTSD.
- You don’t trust people anymore. You’re having hard time trusting literally anyone. This may also happen because you weren’t able to rely on others when life tragedy happened.
- Avoidance type. I will write a completely separate blog post related to avoidant behavior, but here I just wanted to say that you learned how to avoid everything that brings back all those horrible flashbacks.
- Guilt. You may even feel shame or guilt for the things that you’ve survived. Please read more about guilt as a normal part of the grieving process here.
- Pretending you are fine. I will add one extra symptom, and that’s you’re pretending on a daily basis to be fine and function fine because you don’t like others recognizing how you feel and exposing yourself.
